September 25, 2013

Jones says Cowboys operated as if they weren't going to have Spencer, so they have a jump on absorbing his loss

Jerry Jones said the Cowboys have been operating as if they
weren’t going to have Anthony Spencer this year, so losing him has not knocked
the team off stride.

“The only good light here is the fact that we’ve been
playing without Anthony, and our coaching staff, with Rod and certainly Monte, has
made this adjustment for the first three ballgames and most of our preseason,”
Jones said Wednesday. “So we have been bringing personnel in and evaluating
personnel and continuing as though we weren’t going to have Spencer. And so we’re
ahead of it from where we would’ve been had this just happened here and he got
hurt in Kansas City.”

The Cowboys placed Spencer, their leading tackler from a
year ago, on injured reserve Wednesday. He needs microfracture surgery on his
knee and is expected to be in rehab until January or February.

The Cowboys brought in another defensive lineman this week, former
LSU tackle Drake Nevis, and Jones credited Monte Kiffin and Rod Marinelli for
making do with what they are getting.

“The quality of the people that are doing the coaching and
doing that taking of the slack, as far as showing players that might not be of
the stature of Spencer but showing them how to get out there and help us win
ballgames, all of that is in progress and been going on and been really going
on since training camp,” Jones said. “So we’re ahead of the game here in terms
of trying to find out how we’re going to make it work.”

Jones said the Cowboys will miss Spencer’s character as much
as his talent.

“We don’t have anybody that is of a higher substance than
him as a ballplayer,” Jones said. “He’s conscientious. You cannot keep him off
the field. He has been exemplary in his rehab work. He pays attention to every
aspect of his game, his diet. You guys have been around him, but he’s the
consummate pro, and I know that he can get back into it and have a successful
surgery and hope for that and resume that career.”